Canada courts Asean business

OTTAWA, Canada – As eight Asean business journalists from seven Asean countries arrived in this bitter cold capital of Canada early this week, it became clear why Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs invited us for a week long visit in the dead of winter. Canada wants to make an impact in Asean business. Our visit is a prequel to the first ever Canada-Asean Business Forum set May 2-3 this year in Toronto. The business forum will coincide with the first Canada-Asean Senior Economic Officials Meeting, involving economic and finance officials from Asean member countries.

Asean, according to our Canadian hosts, is an important and vibrant market for this North American nation of 30 million people. Annual two-way trade between Canada and Asean is estimated at $10 billion. Asean is also the destination of choice for Canadian foreign direct investment (FDI) of over $11 billion. The Canadians want to introduce Canadian businesses as potential investment partners for Asean companies and entrepreneurs as much as it wants to introduce Asean to Canadian business. Besides, the Canadians are also concerned about being left behind by any trade deal that could be agreed upon by Asean and China.

On the top of their list of sectors they want to sell to Asean is the Canadian ICT sector. They are mighty proud of their available products and services in ICT. This sector contributes some $55 billion a year to the Canadian economy. Canada is home to some 30,000 ICT firms, with an average growth of nine percent between 1997 and 2003, exceeding the country’s 3.7-percent GDP growth. Some of the more familiar Canadian ICT names are Nortel and Blackberry. They also claim to be the most connected nation in the world, "with exceptionally high rates of domestic and commercial Internet penetration."

The Canadians claim to be a fully ICT-enabled economy and a world leader in everything from e-learning to e-government and e-medicine. A dozen Canadian universities offer complete degrees or diplomas on line. Government services are also dispensed efficiently in their e-government system. Isolated native communities in its frozen northern territories have access to sophisticated remote diagnosis and treatment through their system of e-medicine.

I suppose the Canadians took easily to the ICT revolution not just because they have the talent for it. Given its vast geography and a significant population living in far flung areas, this was a way of keeping the Canadian people together. Broadband technology has revolutionized both the provision of government services to isolated communities and the practice of medicine there. They claim to be the first country to hook up all of its schools and libraries to the Internet, as early as 1999, with a student-to-computer ratio of five to one.

It is their vision to make Canada the most connected nation in the world and it seems they have been successful, largely due to a working partnership between government, industry and the academic sector. As much as 64 percent of households and 75 percent of SMEs use the Internet regularly. Canadian private sector, on the other hand, exports more than 75 percent of its wireless production, making Canada a global player in wireless communications equipment.

A project they are exerting every effort to succeed is e-government. It is a heroic undertaking to rethink the delivery of public services to Canadian citizens with the ultimate objective of drastically improving the efficiency of the bureaucracy and thereby reducing the cost of government. The "e" in e-government does not only stand for electronic but for excellence, according to Dr. Simon Gauthier, Canada’s Deputy Chief Information Officer tasked with the responsibility of undertaking this massive change program.

Gauthier explained that the ultimate goal is to have a single window to the Federal Government where citizens could go to transact business for services that are offered by different agencies. The one stop shop and website will be called Service Canada and aimed at focusing on the needs and expectations of citizens. It emphasizes on the front line interactions of government with citizens. He explained that the project is not only about ICT programs and software but an ambitious transformation program that would hopefully change attitudes of the bureaucracy toward greatly improve efficiency, cut costs and encourage greater citizen participation in governance.

When I commented that Service Canada sounds too utopian, Gauthier smiled and admitted that it is. But, he said, they don’t have a choice because they can’t be spending the money they are spending now and not have to raise taxes. "The status quo is not an option," he emphasized. The ICT revolution has also raised service delivery expectations particularly of Canada’s younger citizens that government is obligated to meet. This early, they have placed some 135 of the most commonly used services on-line. Ate Glo should request the Canadian government for a full presentation of Service Canada. Based on what I heard, there are a lot of lessons our own government can learn, And yes, both political parties in Canada are in full support of the program.

PAL flight

Now, some good words about something Pinoy. I was worried I would not be able to make my connecting flight to Calgary and then on to Ottawa because my PAL flight to Vancouver was scheduled to arrive just an hour and 15 minutes before. But thanks to a PAL flight that took off from Manila on time and generous tail winds, we arrived in Vancouver a whole hour ahead of schedule.

Even if the Immigration line took more than 45 minutes to clear, I had plenty of time to spare. In fact, more than I needed, because the Air Canada flight I was connecting to, was late. Among the other Asean journalists, I had the shortest and least complicated flight via PAL’s direct route to Vancouver which only took a little more than nine hours. The same flight flew on to Las Vegas.

Heaven

A refugee from Uganda who came to Canada some decades ago told us if she had to make a choice again, she would still choose Canada for the quality of life. The feelings of Canadians we talked to about life in their country is best expressed by a joke I heard.

An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the world. For his first chapter he decided to write about American churches. So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to Florida, thinking that he would work his way across the country from South to North.

On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read $10,000 per call". The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God. The American thanked the priest and went along his way.

Next stop was in Atlanta. There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign under it. As in Florida, he was told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 he could talk to God. He then traveled to Indianapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same "$10,000 per call" sign under it.

The American, upon leaving Vermont saw a sign for Canada and decided to see if Canadians had the same phone. He arrived in OTTAWA, and again, there was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read "10 cents per call." The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. "Father, I’ve traveled all over America and I’ve seen this same golden telephone in many churches. I’m told that it is a direct line to Heaven, but in every state the price was $10,000 per call. Why is it so cheap here?"

The priest smiled and answered, "You’re in Canada now son, it’s a local call".

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]